Jammy_c's 52! - Making a "Fresh Start" for my 52!

jammy_c

jammy_c

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So then, being a newbie, this is my first 52.

Looking round the house for something that would be fitting, and wondered if I could catch my own reflection in one of the mirror-baubles on the xmas tree (that I’ve still not got round to taking down yet!)
I've been experimenting with DOF recently, so was trying to get a decent-ish shot here with aperture priority to keep the reflection crisp and throw the window in the background out of focus.

As always, c&c very much appreciated!

Week 1 - Reflection
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image not showing here;)
 
That's not working for me. Under the image in photobucket, you should see a list of different links, there should be one for IMG code, just cut and paste the line in the box.
 
will have to look when i get home, can't get on at work so I just emailed myself what i thought the link was :( misery.
 
Oh well, I'll try again, here goes:

DSC_2269.jpg
 
well done on getting the pic posted ;)

The reflection is good however, i would have taken (or cropped) the pic into portrait mode to avoid the white space on the right :D

goodluck with the 52
 
Nice to see you got the image to show. I agree with Toothie that theres is a lot of space on the left I think it could have worked if there was a sillouette of something personal in the space as well

It's a good start though, and you've definately mastered the OOF window :clap:
 
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:bonk:
Doh! I took a portrait one that was more central, and was gonna post that, but thought the bokeh (if that's the right term????) with the window looked a bit more artistic. :thinking: i dunno...

Cheers for the critique, i know what you mean. I really wanted to try and catch something a little more interesting in the reflection than just myself, but couldn't find anything :(
 
Who says you aren't interesting :naughty:?

I agree you've got the bokeh but it just looks blown and distracts from the reflection for me :)

Try posting the portrait one in comparison these :rules: don't say you can't :D

Looking forward to your take on History and welcome to the 52ers :wave:
 
Right, so i have eventually got round to uploading the portrait pic from Week 1 again, and below is my Week 2 entry. C&C welcome as usual. i'm fairly happy with the History one actually, which makes a nice change :)

Week 1 - Reflection (Part 2)
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Week 2 - History
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I took this yesterday at a little church on my way to work in oxfordshire, it commemorates the members of the parish who served and sadly met their fate in the 1st world war. It was erected in 1919, I thought it was quite fitting...
 
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Toothie said:
well done on getting the pic posted ;)

The reflection is good however, i would have taken (or cropped) the pic into portrait mode to avoid the white space on the right :D
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Ohh missed this one :) Good first image and I agree with Ruth about the idea of a crop :)

Looking forward to the next one ! :D

edit: oops your next image isn't showing :(
 
Good first week. Agree the bokeh is distracting. 2nd reflection shot is much better.
Can't see your history pic :shrug:
Nice history shot. Definitely fits the theme. Nicely exposed. good detail and colour :thumbs:
 
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A good idea on Reflection, I have to agree about the crop. The difficulty is I think that too much of the window area is blown out and it distracts from the reflection
 
2nd reflection shot is great :) and the history one is superb! Really like the angle and viewpoint you have gone for!

Nice work :)
 
Cheers! i'm really happy with it.
Got another one from the opposite angle, but preferred this one
 
2nd Reflection shot much better for me too and love the angle and DoF on the History shot. Perfect for the theme. Keep it up :clap::thumbs:

PS Well done you for reacting so positively to the comments
 
I really like the History shot, the angle, focus and depth of field is really effective :thumbs: I'm not sure about the bit of wall that is showing, perhaps if it was reframed so that the 1914-1918 bit was in the top right 1/3rd and in focus (like it is now) you could cut off the wall and show more of the plaque (with more of it out of focus).

As for the reflection shot, I think there is an improvement on the first but I find the white on the right a bit distracting, I think it needs to be green on both sides. However, I still think your orignal plan was good (all it needed was a sillouette in the white section) and shows a natural sense of composition.
 
I'm not too keen on the reflection ones but :thumbs::thumbs: for the history picture, really gives it depth
 
Week 3 - Learning
week3.jpg



The thing that i'm learning most about at the minute is DSLR Photography, so i thought this was apt. Apologies for the watermarking, i'm playing with HDR in PhotoMatix at the mo...
 
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Week 4 - Suprise!
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This is my brother-in-law's kitten. His name is Oscar and he's a proper little rascal. His favourite game is to hide and wait until you walk into the room then attack you! :) SUPRISE!
 
I like the composition and idea behind your learning shot James - especially for this forum :D - but it looks a bit 'hazy' - maybe the processing? Not as clear as I'd like to see it!

Surprise - spot on :) I can imagine Oscar wreaking a small amount of furry havoc :D

Nice B&W and nice capture :D
 
Where've I been? Sorry I've totally missed your '52' until today. So, to catch up:

Week 1: I can see where you were heading in the landscape shot, but I think the balance was a bit too skewed to the left. The portrait shot is the one for me.

Week 2: Great angle and dof. I like the idea of being able to see just part of the text. I tried something similar for this week but gave up on grounds of limited ps skills. Well done.

Week 3: Not so sure about this. The plastic dust jackets on the books give it a slightly hazy look - but maybe that's due to the photomatrix thingy.

Week 4: I love this. Oscar's expression is brilliant - and it looks as though he's got his claws out ready for attack. Surprise - spot on! The mono treatment was a good choice - it shows off his amazing set of whiskers a treat. :clap:

Look forward to seeing your Week 5.

Jean
 
Great fun photo...cats are a great GET OUT OF JAIL card...

Well caught...:thumbs:
 
Haha! true :)
this was the original shot that I took, as 1/3 of the composition for the books photo above, added an overexposed and underexposed and blended them in PhotoMatrix for the effect. but here it is in it's former glory for better clarity. i think i prefer it too to be honest! :shrug:

DSC_3221.jpg
 
Where've I been? Sorry I've totally missed your '52' until today. So, to catch up:

Week 1: I can see where you were heading in the landscape shot, but I think the balance was a bit too skewed to the left. The portrait shot is the one for me.

Week 2: Great angle and dof. I like the idea of being able to see just part of the text. I tried something similar for this week but gave up on grounds of limited ps skills. Well done.

Week 3: Not so sure about this. The plastic dust jackets on the books give it a slightly hazy look - but maybe that's due to the photomatrix thingy.

Week 4: I love this. Oscar's expression is brilliant - and it looks as though he's got his claws out ready for attack. Surprise - spot on! The mono treatment was a good choice - it shows off his amazing set of whiskers a treat.

Look forward to seeing your Week 5.

Jean
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Cheers Jean! much appriciated & thanks for the C+C! :thumbs: to be fair i'm pretty bad at keeping up to date with it. i've ended up posting 2 week's worth at a time since the start of the thread!
 
jammy_c said:
but here it is in it's former glory for better clarity. i think i prefer it too to be honest! :shrug:

DSC_3221.jpg
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jammy_c said:
i've ended up posting 2 week's worth at a time since the start of the thread!
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Yep - definitely the 'former glory' shot for me. :clap:

Two weeks at a time is twice the fun - no worries. :)

Jean
 
I like the second post of learning better too. Seems sharper and has more punch. Nice one for 'Surprise' cute and pleasntly evil!:clap:
 
Learning - One of the things I've learned with HDR is that to get the best from the technique you really do need a wide dynamic range (lots of bright and lots of dark) in the image. I think that here you show that perfectly the original image with some basic (levels etc) PP works best. I think the DoF you selected really works well.

Surprise - a lovely image, to me the surprise is in the cat's expression, it looks as if it has just been dropped :naughty: (can you tell I'm not a cat person). I do notice that you've cropped part of the foot off and I think an image more square to the face would have captured the expression even better than you have.

Definitely looking forward to weeks 5&6
 
Learning - One of the things I've learned with HDR is that to get the best from the technique you really do need a wide dynamic range (lots of bright and lots of dark) in the image. I think that here you show that perfectly the original image with some basic (levels etc) PP works best. I think the DoF you selected really works well.
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Yeah, I must agree. The book shot was straight from the camera actually, no PP whatsoever, but perhaps it could do with a little tweaking to adjust the levels.

Surprise - a lovely image, to me the surprise is in the cat's expression, it looks as if it has just been dropped (can you tell I'm not a cat person). I do notice that you've cropped part of the foot off and I think an image more square to the face would have captured the expression even better than you have.
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Cheers! Yeah, unfortunately I was a bit too close and was shooting one-handed. My left hand was distracting (not teasing, obviously!) Oscar so it was difficult to get a shot square to the face. Definitely a good point though. I’m sure it would have been possible if he’d sit still long enough to take a decent picture! :lol:

Definitely looking forward to weeks 5&6
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Thanks! and cheers for the C+C :thumbs:
 
My catch up time now :D

Learning - very apt and I much prefer your second shot, much more punchy :clap:

Surprise - oooh, a pussy cat :lol: and I really like this, nice and sharp and well done for attempting a cat in the first place as they can move like greased lightening, and get your ankles in the process :naughty:
 
The reflection shot with the different crop has done the job well. History is very good. Learning works much better for me in the 'former glory' version, there's just some lost in the Photomatix version. Surprise is superb, well caught
 
I think its been said before, but when you find these threads late, most of the relevant comments have already been made.

So i'll just add that I like the photos so far and am impressed with the clarity of the last learning picture posted. I also adore the photo of the kitten, but then I adore kittens!

I would love to know how you got her to stay still, cats have an inbuilt sense that allows them to bog off just when you need them!!
 
Week 5 - OPPOSITES
Week5-Opposites.jpg


:) HAPPINESS & SADNESS :'( ...

C+C Appriciated as usual :thumbs:
 
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